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Day 2 – Setting and Furling, Tacking Stations and the Open Sea!
Ahoy Shipmates…greetings from the open sea! When I left you last night we had just commenced first night climbs. I am pleased to report that everyone made it off the deck, not necessarily all the way to the top, but a solid effort by all, and then they all enjoyed a restful night at anchor. After a very busy Day 2 we are finally making our way south towards Jervis Bay…ETA midday tomorrow. Due to the light conditions we are motorsailing…a full press of fore and aft sails is up…just not quite enough wind! Upside is that we have relatively calm conditions and it promises to be pleasant night at sea…a fact much appreciated by a number of the youth crew who have received a visit from the dreaded green goblin (sea sickness). Needless to say they are soldiering on! The gang from blue watch have succinctly described today’s activities below, which included an early morning activity, breakfast, morning brief, happy hour, setting and furling drills, lunch, captain’s safety, weighing anchor, more setting and furling drills, tacking stations, dinner, another tack and finally overnight watches where they will be introduced to the watch on deck routines (helm, lookout, rounds etc). That’s about it for now, until tomorrow fair winds…Captain Kenny
DAY 2 – Blue Watch
Our day was started by the sweet sounds of Hong Kong Garden by ‘Siouxsie & the Banshees’ at the bright and early hour of 0630. It’s fair to say that we were all feeling a little groggy and a little seasick despite the fact we weren’t even at sea yet. The crew bombarded us with info from the get go. After a gourmet breakie, we met on the aft of the boat to do the flag ceremony, which involved raising both the Australian White Ensign and Australian Navy Flag and then singing the National Anthem. We then had a team meeting which involved a whole tonne of deck safety, line handling, and setting and furling sails. Happy Hour came up next which much to our dislike involved cleaning the whole ship!
We pulled out of Port Jackson at around 1430 and were delighted to be accompanied by a big pod of dolphins as we left on our voyage. It was truly magical to be pulling out of the harbour, dolphins beside, and heading into the open sea! We then did a lot of tacking which involves moving the sails to catch the wind in order to turn the boat. This is a big team effort which involves all Youth Crew Members heaving in and checking away lines. By 1700 we were all ready for dinner, except some crew who were hanging off the side of the boat. We ended our massive day by doing one final tack at 1830. Our night watches start tonight which go from 2000-0001, 0001-0400 and then 0400-0800. So we’ll see how we go tomorrow on no doubt limited sleep!
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Wind: E at 10kts Weather: Fine Sea: ESE at 0.5m Course: 190 Speed: 6kts Location: 12nm east of Port Hacking (Cronulla)
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